6.  The applicant was born in 1958 and lives in Oryol. At the material time the applicant was a journalist and editor-in-chief of the Orlovskiy Meridian newspaper, published by the Mir Novostey limited company.
7.  On 21 March 2001 the applicant’s newspaper published his article “Tied in the system, or, Why are the generals waiting for the appointed hour?” (“В путах системы, или Почему генералы ждут часа «Ч»?”). The article was signed by his pen name Sergey Smirnov. The article told the readers about a criminal investigation opened by the regional prosecutor’s office into the activities of six (out of fourteen) officers from the regional anti-narcotics unit (ОБНОН УВД Орловской области). It was alleged that on several occasions the officers of the unit had unlawfully discontinued the criminal prosecution of drug-dealers who had agreed to “co-operate” with them and to share the profits from drug sales.
8.  The article featured an interview with a former drug dealer, Ms V., who sold drugs under the unidentified officers’ “cover” for several years, until they “betrayed” her and she was arrested:
“They apprehended me at a market when I was purchasing opium, [they] wrote down my contact details... Like many others, I had been paying them, and, ‘as a gesture of thanks’, they at first overlooked my buying and consuming drugs, [and] later my selling them... They said: here is a new drug, try it and describe the effect to us. It was heroin... I assure you that the police know every single [sale-purchase] point and every single dealer – in this sense they work very well [because] it brings them profit... I had to remember all of their birthdays – theirs, their wives’ and children’s. All of them expected presents. Also, they needed money all the time: once [they asked for money] to buy petrol for the police car... They set me up... Now I am in prison. There are only my kind here, because we cannot pay them off – our income from drug-dealing is barely sufficient for a ‘pay-off’ and our own dose. As to the dealers... I bear witness that all of them left the pre-trial detention facility...”
9.  The article described the alleged wrongdoings of the anti-narcotics unit in general terms, without identifying any officers by name or rank:
“The persons who are charged today do not admit their guilt. They claim that they have been slandered by drug addicts and are being avenged by the regional prosecutor’s office for the drug-related arrest of the prosecutor’s son in the past... Nevertheless, it is for the court to determine the matter – this is why I do not name any of the police officers. But one fact is indisputable: the extent to which drugs have spread in the Oryol Region is such that there is probably no way out. Taking into account that the duties of various state authorities are clearly demarcated, no matter what subterfuges you use, it is the police in particular who are responsible for the prosperity of drug-dealers in Oryol and, more specifically, the anti-narcotics unit. The anti-narcotics unit is also to be blamed for the deaths of 39 persons who died last year by overdose and for the easy access to drugs of each school student in Oryol. And also for the fact that drug-dealers are still at liberty.”
10.  The article further stated that the officers charged had used drugs to pay for “information and services”:
“The investigation found that, as a matter of course, some officers in the unit used drugs to pay for services and information. Question: where does a police officer get drugs from? Answer: part [of the drugs] seized from drug addicts and drug dealers was retained, in contravention of all laws and regulations, for the needs of the police. And when such a dreadful weapon ends up in the hands of people who are not entirely morally upright, one can expect anything: drugs become a means of payment, a means of blackmail, and a threat to life... A police officer becomes a criminal.”
11.  The concluding paragraphs of the article explained its headline. A high-ranking general in the Russian security service once allegedly stated that the police knew all criminals and only waited for the appointed hour when the order would come to exterminate them. The article doubted the general’s illusion of omnipotence and expressed concern for the future of the Oryol Region.
12.  On an unspecified date all fourteen officers of the Oryol Region anti-narcotics unit, including the six charged with drug-related offences, filed a civil defamation action. Without mentioning specific parts of the article, the officers asserted that the publication had damaged their honour, dignity and professional reputation and claimed compensation for non-pecuniary damage. The statements designated the editor’s office of the Orlovskiy Meridian newspaper and “the author of the article Sergey Smirnov” as co-defendants. One of the plaintiffs subsequently died.
13.  On 18 June 2001 the Sovietskiy District Court of Oryol invited the plaintiffs to specify which extracts of the publication they believed to be damaging to their honour and reputation. Between mid-2001 and early 2002 the plaintiffs filed identically worded addenda to their original statements of claim, according to which the following expressions had damaged their reputation:
“...I had been paying them...They said: here is a new drug, try it and describe the effect to us. It was heroin... I had to remember all of their birthdays – theirs, their wives’ and children’s. All of them expected presents...
...it is the police in particular who are responsible for the prosperity of drug-dealers in Oryol and, more specifically, the anti-narcotics unit. The anti-narcotics unit is also to be blamed for the deaths of 39 persons who died last year by overdose and for the easy access to drugs of each school student in Oryol. And also for the fact that drug-dealers are still at liberty...
...part [of the drugs] seized from drug addicts and drug dealers was retained, in contravention of all laws and regulations, for the needs of the police. And when such a dreadful weapon ends up in the hands of people who are not entirely morally upright, one can expect anything: drugs become a means of payment, a means of blackmail, and a threat to life... A police officer becomes a criminal...”
14.  On an unspecified date the staff lawyer of the applicant’s newspaper commissioned a linguistic examination of the publication, which was carried out by a professor from Oryol State University who had a degree in language studies. His report pointed out that the publication had not referred to any police officer by name or otherwise and the blame had been placed on the state authorities as a whole and the Oryol Region anti-narcotics unit in particular. The expert concluded that none of the quoted extracts could be considered as damaging the honour or dignity of any specific person as an individual.
15.  On 4 October 2002 the Sovietskiy District Court of Oryol delivered the judgment in the defamation action against the editor’s office of the Orlovskiy Meridian newspaper and the Mir Novostey company. The assessment of the damaging nature of the extracts was solely based on the statements by the plaintiffs and their relatives who claimed that the publication had been a cause of psychological anxiety. The court did not address the issue of whether the publication had targeted the plaintiffs. Nor did it distinguish between the author’s speech and the statements quoted as having been made by Ms V. in an interview. In the court’s opinion, the defendant failed to prove that the published information had been true on the date of its dissemination. Its findings were worded as follows:
“The information designated by the plaintiffs was published in the Orlovskiy Meridian newspaper and contains statements to the effect that the Oryol Regional anti-narcotics unit is to be blamed for the prosperity of drug-dealers in Oryol, for the deaths of 39 individuals by overdose and for the fact that most dealers are still at liberty; that the officers of the anti-narcotics unit made use of drugs seized from drug addicts and drug-dealers and unlawfully retained them to meet the needs of the police in paying for information; that the officers of the anti-narcotics unit were paid off, that drug addicts knew their birthdays and those of their family members because they had to give them presents on these days, that they suggested to her that she test a new drug...
The court considers that this information is damaging to the honour, dignity and professional reputation of [the 13 plaintiffs] as officers of the anti-narcotics unit, whose main duty is the fight against crime and, more specifically, against the unlawful trade in drugs...
The plaintiffs have not been found guilty of any crime or offence in accordance with the legal procedure, and thus the information which is damaging to their honour, dignity and professional reputation is untrue and is subject to a rectification in the same media...”
16.  The District Court ordered the newspaper to publish a rectification, the editor’s office to apologise to the plaintiffs and the Mir Novostey company to pay 5,000 Russian roubles (approximately EUR 200) to each of the plaintiffs.
17.  In the statement of appeal, counsel for the Mir Novostey company submitted that the District Court had not given proper assessment to the fact that the publication had concerned a structural police unit rather than named individuals, that a criminal case was pending against several police officers, that other officers had been disciplined after the publication and that the director of the regional police had negatively appraised the performance of the anti-narcotics unit.
18.  On 27 November 2002 the Oryol Regional Court examined the appeal and heard oral submissions by the applicant as the editor-in-chief, and counsel for the Mir Novostey company. It found as follows:
“The [article in question] was published in March 2001, that is, before the criminal case, including the indictment bill, was submitted for trial. As of today, there has still been no conviction in the criminal case against [six plaintiffs]. The first-instance court has therefore correctly concluded that there was no proof of the truthfulness of the information contained in the publication and contested by the plaintiffs...
The court considers that the negative appraisal of the performance of the anti-narcotics unit by the Oryol Regional police department, which followed publication of the article, cannot be a proof of the truthfulness of the information contested by the plaintiffs because in the present case the only such proof would be a court judgment.
With regard to the foregoing, the court considers that... the appellant’s argument that the contested publication did not contain information on specific individuals, but only referred to a structural unit of the police, is not a valid ground to quash the judgment. Under Article 306 § 2 of the Russian Code of Civil Procedure, a judgment that is correct in substance need not be quashed merely because of formal defects.”
19.  The Regional Court upheld the judgment of 4 October 2002 in substance. It also ordered that the newspaper should print the operative part of the judgment as the rectification, but it struck out the requirement to apologise to the plaintiffs on the ground that such a requirement had no basis in domestic law.